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Socorro residents want Vietnam War MIA's name on new SISD school

Manuel Puentes is pictured in Vietnam in this family photo. (Special to the Times)

Leno Puentes still cries thinking of his younger brother whom everyone called "Pelon."

"He was a good kid who grew up picking and chopping cotton after school, weekends and holidays," he said. "On Jan. 4, 1971, he left for the war in Vietnam. He has not returned."

Socorro Independent School District officials in December are expected to decide whether a new public school will be named
after Army Staff Sgt. Manuel R. Puentes, a Socorro soldier missing in action in South Vietnam since 1971.

Puentes' friends and relatives are urging the district's board of trustees to name one of two proposed new schools in honor of the Socorro native - and others missing in action - who dreamed of becoming a professional boxer.

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Ramón Rentería

They describe him as a war hero with an infectious grin.

"It's time to bring Manny back to life or at least for his family to have something to remember," said Eugene Trujillo, one of about 20 friends and relatives lobbying to have a public school named after Puentes.

A district committee will recommend proposed names to the school board on Tuesday, according to a district representative.

Puentes, a 20-year-old Golden Gloves boxing champion, was an Army rifleman and part of a 12-man patrol in the rugged, jungle-covered mountains northwest of Khe Sahn, Quang Tri Province.

North Vietnamese forces ambushed the patrol on March 25, 1971, with grenades, wounding Puentes and patrol leader Jimmy C. Johnson. Three other soldiers were killed - Staff Sgt.

"He was crying," said Ricardo Puentes, a retired educator in Arizona. "He wanted to serve the country and help my parents financially, but he really didn't want to go to Vietnam.

"

Ricardo Puentes advised his brother to go AWOL even if it meant having to serve a few years in prison for deserting the Army. Manuel Puentes ignored the advice.

The twins were among 15 children born to Mexican immigrant parents.

Maybe it was a strange coincidence but a car ran over Ricardo Puentes in Socorro the same week that his brother was wounded and reported missing.

"I also almost lost my life," Ricardo Puentes said. "They say twins have some kind of connection."

Manuel's father, Matias, died believing his son was still alive. Mother Gavina lost hope and died believing her son had died, according to family members.
Ricardo Puentes tries not to think about his twin brother.

"It still hurts," he said. "But what happened to my brother made me stronger. I went back to school and got my GED, and I went to college."
Manuel Puentes was drafted soon after graduating from Socorro High School.

Carlos M. Rivera, a family friend and commander of American GI Forum (Paso Del Norte), is optimistic the family will someday learn more about the missing soldier. He pushed for the return of remains of Eduardo Pedregon, a San Elizario soldier reported MIA in Korea in 1950.

"There's no solid evidence to show that he (Puentes) was killed," Rivera said. "I still hold hopes that he survived."

If he survived, Manuel Puentes would be in his early 60s now.

Cesar Rosales Jr. of Omaha, Neb., became acquainted with Manuel and Ricardo Puentes when both were boxers.

"Manuel was a genuine kind of person with an infectious grin and was just a good guy," Rosales said.

Diane McNamara, now living in the Boston area, wore Manuel Puentes' MIA bracelet (which honored MIAs and POWs) in high school in the 1970s. Her father was an Air Force pilot stationed in Vietnam.

"I started wearing the bracelet as my way of showing support for the soldiers who were sent to Vietnam and I think in some way as an expression of the angst I was feeling having my Dad in Vietnam for such a long period of time," McNamara said in an email. "When the war ended and the soldiers started returning home, we were living at Keesler AFB in
Biloxi (Miss.). My mother would often take us to the air field to greet returning soldiers. It was such an emotional event and it brings me to tears if I think about it today."

McNamara kept the bracelet with Puentes' name. She often wondered about the soldier and tried to learn more about him over the years.
"I could not bear the idea of getting rid of it (the bracelet) as it meant so much to me," she said.

McNamara recently searched for Puentes' name on the Vietnam Memorial Web page. "It was a bittersweet moment ... it confirmed that he didn't make it home safely," she said.

A few months before he disappeared, Manuel Puentes sent a short poem he wrote, thoughts lamenting that he was going to a distant war and leaving his large family behind. "I live each day in fear 'cause I know death is near," he wrote.

Ramon Renteria may be reached at rrenteria@elpasotimes.com; 546-6146.

Puentes tribute Mass

A Veterans Day Mass in remembrance of Army Staff Sgt. Manuel Puentes will be celebrated at noon today at Socorro Mission La Purisima Catholic Church, 328 Nevarez Road, in Socorro.

Number of MIAs from Vietnam War

In October, the Department of Defense said in a news release that 1,655 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. It said the U.S. government is working with officials from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to find them.